Page 184 of Seer Prophet

His virtual avatar shrugged.

“I can take you, cousin,” he said. “Or I can tell you. Which do you prefer?”

“Has she been asking about me?”

There was another silence.

That one felt thicker.

“Vik.” She frowned, chewing a cuticle on her thumb. “Did she ask about me, or not?”

“You know full well she has been asking about you!” he burst out, his voice openly angry. “What are you doing, cousin? You know you hurt her very much! Very, very much! And all of the seers who brought her back here for you! You hurt all of them!”

That time, Dante fell silent.

She tasted blood and realized she’d bitten her thumb hard enough to break the skin.

Wiping her lips, she frowned, wiping her bleeding thumb on her jeans.

“Are you going to tell me or not?” she asked.

There was another silence.

In it, Dante saw his avatar just standing there, in black, empty space.

After another pause, she saw that avatar sigh, right before it ran a stick-figure hand through its white, sticking up, stick-figure hair.

“I forget, you know, how young you are,” he said, his voice openly grouchy. “You were a real brat today. A stereotype of a human teenager. I am not used to that from you.”

“What?” she snorted. “You mydadnow, Vik-man?”

“I am close enough!” he snapped, surprising her with his emotion as much as his words. “You embarrassed me today, beloved cousin! You embarrassed me, just as if you were my own! More than that, I am very disappointed in you… and very sad for your mother, who cried when we told her you would not come up. I did not think you would treat one of your loved ones in such a callous way. With so much selfish disregard!”

Some part of her wanted to snap back at him.

She could feel it building in her throat, rants about how he sure as hellwasn’ther father and he could just piss off with his unearned “embarrassment” and disappointment in her and just piss off in general.

She didn’t say those things, though.

The truth was, his words stung.

They hit in a way that surprised her, if only because they hurt. They hurt more than maybe anything anyone had said to her since she’d gotten here.

She also realized she did see him like a dad.

Close enough, as he’d said.

She could feel all that. She could even imagine the Vik-man could feel all that, too.

She couldn’t make herself say she was sorry, though.

Even so, she sniffed a little, wiping her nose. “Are you going to tell me?” she asked, hating how young she sounded. “Or should I ask one of the others?”

He let out a sigh, clicking at her.

She felt some part of his anger lifting, even before he spoke in a gruffer voice.

“I will come find you.”

---